Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
J.G. Bellet

      John Gifford Bellett was an Irish Christian writer and theologian, and was influential in the beginning of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Bellett was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated first at the Grammar School in Exeter, England, then at Trinity College Dublin, where he excelled in Classics, and afterwards in London. It was in Dublin that, as a layman, he first became acquainted with John Nelson Darby, then a minister in the established Church of Ireland, and in 1829 the pair began meeting with others such as Edward Cronin and Francis Hutchinson for communion and prayer.

      Bellett had become a Christian as a student and by 1827 was a layman serving the Church. In a letter to James McAllister, written in 1858, he describes the episcopal charge of William Magee, Archbishop of Dublin, that sought for greater state protection for the Church. The Erastian nature of the charge offended Darby particularly, but also many others including Bellett.
      The pair bonded particularly over prophetic issues, and attended meetings and discussions together at the home of Lady Powerscourt, and Bellett and Darby (along with the Brethren movement in particular) were particularly associated with dispensationalism and premillenialism.

      Bellett wrote many articles and books on scriptural subjects, his most famous works being The Patriarchs, The Evangelists and The Minor Prophets.

... Show more
J.G. Bellet

The Early Days of Brethren

Early Days of the "Brethren" Movement (extract from a Letter to James McAllister) J. G. Bellett June 7, 1858. When I call to mind some of the early facts connected with the history of "Brethren" (as for distinction I will call them) I am impressed with a sense of there having been at that time a ver... Read More
J.G. Bellet

The Form of a Servant

"Christ Jesus: who, being in THE FORM OF GOD, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him THE FORM OF A SERVANT, and was made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:5-7). In His life, Christ hides His glory "the form of God," under the "form of a... Read More
J.G. Bellet

The Life of Faith

In the "life of faith" we do not merely look for the principle of dependence on God or confidence in Him. It signifies much more. It is a life of large and various energies. According to God, or Scripture, faith is that principle in the soul which not only trusts Him and believes Him, it is also tha... Read More
J.G. Bellet

The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ

The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ J G Bellett INTRODUCTION. It is the Moral Glory, or, as we speak, the character of the Lord Jesus, on which I meditate in these pages. All went up to God as a sacrifice of sweet savour. Every expression of Himself in every measure, however small, and in whate... Read More
J.G. Bellet

The Obvious Glory of Christ

The glories of the Lord Jesus are threefold--personal, official, and moral. His personal glory He veiled, save where faith discovered it, or an occasion demanded it. His official glory He veiled likewise; He did not walk through the land as either the divine Son from the bosom of the Father, or as t... Read More
J.G. Bellet

2 Chronicles 6: 1, 2

It was no common moment in the experience of a man of God, when Solomon uttered these words, "The Lord hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness; but I have built an house of habitation for Thee, and a place. for Thy dwelling for ever." A wondrous thought it was, that anything done or erec... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Brief Word on the Epistle to the Galatians

I believe that we might shortly describe this epistle as thus--the "scripture" by the ministry of Paul now, as once by the voice of Sarah, casting the bondwoman and her son out of the house of Abraham. The apostle, in order to this, first proves his warrant. And this he does to perfection in Gal. 1,... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Fair Show in the Flesh

Galatians 6:12. "The truth," or the doctrine of the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches us (John 8: 32-36), sets free all those who receive it. It is the "law of liberty" (James 1, 2); it is "mercy rejoicing over judgment;" for judgment has been duly and fully marked against us as guilty, but through t... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Letter

(This letter is printed from the writer's own MS., and has not been, within the editor's knowledge, before published. Several more will be given (D.V.) as opportunity offers.) My Dear Brother,--Faith counts upon the end from the beginning, as our hymn has it-- "The guilt of twice ten thousand sins O... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Letter on Neutrality as to Christ, or Bethesda

Beloved Brother, I am glad at having received your second letter, and I purpose, if the Lord will, to give it a larger answer than perhaps you counted on. But I do so designedly--for I believe the "Brethren" have, under present circumstances painful as they are, an opportunity of learning some good ... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Letter to a Bereaved Brother

My dear John, How much I charge myself for want of joy in God; and I have just come from looking at a scripture that may be able to fix this charge still more home upon the spirit; I mean the opening of Luke. What joy among the angels there; what joy on earth in the vessels filled by the Spirit ther... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Letter to a Sister

The Lord bless you, my dear sister; and if called on to take the journey somewhat more solitarily than your heart had been wont to count upon, and to know sorrows which had not come within the range of your forebodings, may His hand be with you, and its well-known staff. "God is His own interpreter.... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Letter--Jeremiah

Beloved Brother,--I had a little scrap on Jeremiah lying by me. I do not know if it will suit the present current of your thoughts, but it may give a little communion for some half hour, and it is well to look at the growing character of those boastful and yet religious days in which we live. The Lo... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Meditation

Luke 6: 22, 23. "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." Luke 6: 22, 23. It... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Meditation on Canticles

The character of the soul's communion delineated in this little book is very elevated. It is something that we may say with sorrow we little reach. There is no question of sin at all here; it is no enquiry either into the fact or the nature or the ground of our acceptance with God. Such questions an... Read More
J.G. Bellet

A Thought on Exodus 40 and Acts 2

The Tabernacle is set up in Exodus 40, the Old Testament house of God. The Lord enters it and adopts it. The Cloud rests on it, and the Glory enters into it. So is it, though in another form, in the New Testament house of Acts 2. The Holy Ghost, as a rushing mighty wind, enters into it, and cloven t... Read More
J.G. Bellet

Abraham

Genesis 12 - 25. In earlier parts of the book of Genesis, I have already traced two distinct histories--that of the antediluvian saints, or the times from Adam to Enoch; and that of Noah and of those who followed him, down to the scattering of the nations. The first of these histories occupies Gen. ... Read More
J.G. Bellet

Abraham in Genesis 18, 19

The elevation of Abraham in Genesis 18, 19, is something very peculiar. He seems to apprehend the Divine Stranger and His angelic companions at once, needing no introduction, or notice, or revelation--as Joshua, Gideon, and others, in like circumstances, did. "He was accustomed to the Divine presenc... Read More
J.G. Bellet

Absalom

2 Samuel 11: 12. "The fool hath said in his heart, No God!" David is the principal object before the mind of the Spirit of God in both the 1st and the 2nd books of Samuel. In the 1st book we see him brought from obscurity into honour and praise, and there standing, by the good hand of God, in full r... Read More
J.G. Bellet

Afflictions and Consolations

There are three things in this epistle: 1st, the apostle contemplates the saint in times of various troubles; 2ndly, the mind with which the trouble should be passed through; and 3rdly, the consolations which God provides for such a time. There is nothing very remarkable in the bearing of it; but so... Read More

Group of Brands